Slow down

Canby City Council will lower speed limit on portion of Territorial Road

Life and traffic should go a little slower on Territorial Road between Holly Street and Highway 99E.

The Canby City Council Wednesday night approved a motion to reduce the Territorial Road speed limit from 35 to 30 mph.

Councilor Clint Coleman introduced the motion to slow motion on the problem area. Territorial is a popular route motorists use as a shortcut through Canby. The City Council and traffic safety commission identified that section of road as a speed zone a year ago and voted to reduce the speed limit from 35 to 30 mph. Then city realized it had to have ODOT's OK to change a speed from a statutory limit.

That came just recently. ODOT responded with a thorough report and concurred the city had a speeding problem. ODOT recommended reducing the speed limit from 35 to 30 mph.

Mayor Brian Hodson introduced council's new "gizmos" and leap into high tech. Each councilor now has his or her own iPad, which will allow City Recorder Kim Scheaffer to distribute more council packets more often and make changes.

The advance will save time and money, Hodson said. Council packets can run 100, 200 and even 500 pages.

Councilors received their iPads about two weeks ago, Scheaffer said. It took all of five minutes to show them how to use them, she said.

Now all councilors have to do is download the packets available on the city website.

Im very happy, Scheaffer said. Its going to save a lot of money, paper and time.

Before, she had to print about a dozen packets for each meeting for the councilors and staff.

Council also reviewed the job profile for the search for a new city administrator, preferably with urban renewal experience. The salary for the position will be $120,000 to $145,000.

Council awarded the contract for the citys 2014 street maintenance program to Eagle-Elsner Inc., which submitted the low bid of $444,866.

The winning bid came in $80,000 under the amount budgeted for the project. The contract authorizes Eagle-Elsner to expand the work up to $525,000 if necessary for other streets needing immediate maintenance.